Toy tray



30, 1955 G. GALLOWHUR 2,716,335

TOY TRAY Filed April 30, 1953 Will III IVIHII L/IZ INVENTOR. GE ORGE GALL OWHUR By 552 a United States Patent TOY TRAY George Gallowhur, New York, N. Y.

Application April 30, 1953, Serial No. 352,178

2 Claims. (Cl. 65-53) This invention relates to a toy tray especially adapted for use by children to encourage good eating habits.

It is well-known that difliculty is encountered at certain developmental stages in getting children to eat the food which is placed before them and that many children are prone to dawdle or play at meal-time and thus acquire poor eating habits. It is, therefore, highly desirable that such children should be encourage to eat food placed before them and that means he found for developing desirable eating habits but, so far as I am aware, there is no available means for accomplishing the same. The use of toys, pets and other devices serves only to distract and to develop incorrect eating habits rather than to aid in overcoming the problem and, consequently, there has remained unsolved an important problem which has not received adequate remedial attention and for which no courage the child to eat and to serve the foodin an" attractive, interesting and pleasing manner which will be bound to evoke the appropriate phychological response and aid'the development of good eating habits.

Another object of the invention resides in the pro vision of a toy tray which simulates a farm or a barnyard scene inasmuch as it has been found that most children are particularly attracted thereto. 6 j

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of a simple and relatively inexpensive toy tray which may be composed of paper, cardboard or other material which can be discarded after a single use or in some cases after a few uses, although the invention also contemplates the construction of the tray of some permanent material such as a molded syntheticplastic material, in which event the tray can be washed and sterilized and reused any desired number of times.

More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide a toy tray which is essentially composed of a tray proper'and a plurality of farm objects integrated therewith both mechanically and psychologically and which is capable of being inserted in a package of dry cereal or of being formed as a package cut-out printed thereon with scored lines.

Other and still further objects and advantages will be understood and appreciated by those skilled in this art or will be apparent or pointed out hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. l is a plan view of a toy tray constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view looking from right to left of Fig. 1 and Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line 44 of Fig. 1.

My new toy tray in accordance with the embodiment thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawing consists essentially of a tray proper 10, a cylindrically-shaped container 11 and a building-like member 12. The tray proper 10 is preferably stamped, pressed or otherwise.

formed from paper or cardboard which has sufiicient body and strength to support the members 11' and'12 andwhich will not be so pervious to fluids, such asmilk, that the latter will rapidly permeate or pass through the same,"but is sufiiciently dense, strong and impervious to enable it to withstand the weight of the building-like members'll and 12, when filled, and to hold fluid in thepond-like depression 13. This depression is produced by suitably pressing down into the shape indicated in Fig. 2 a suitable blank of paper stock of the characteristics referred to and which depression may be likened to a pond. While the depression 13 has been shown as ellipsoidal, it may, nevertheless, be of other shapes, such as round'or rectangular.

The tray 10 also has a depending marginal flange 14 which extends entirely around the tray, serves as a support therefore and raises the undepressed portion of ,the tray above the surface on which the tray'is placed so as to provide space for the depression 13, which latter terminates in a bottom portion 15 which is substantially flush with the supporting surface for the tray which may, for. example, be a table, a highchair tray or the like. The marginal flange maybe formed simultaneously with the depression 13 but'need not necessarily be so formed as it may, for example, be bent downwardly as a separate operation.

In addition to the depression 13 which, as already indicated, has a pond-like nature and appearance, the tray is provided with a shallowcircular depression 16 which is only slightly depressed below the level ,of the tray so as toreceive therein the cylindrical type container 11 having a conical removable cover 17. The cylindrical container 11, which is especially adatped to contain milk but which may be used for other liquids, such as water, is exi ternally decorated to look like a silo: and the conical cover 17 thereof may readily be removed, and the entire container 11 may be readily lifted up away from the tray either when it is desired'for the child to drinkitherefrorn or to use some of the liquid to put into the pond-like depression 13, or partially bot V 1 The tray 10 is further provided with a shallow rectangular depression 18 which is adapted to receive the building-like member 12 which is externally decorated to look like a barn and which has aremovable' foot 19. The barn-like receptacle 12 may, of course, be of other shapes but its primary purpose is to act as a receptacle or holder for a dry cereal or other suitable food, a portion of which is to be placed in the pond-like depression 13 and upon which milk, for example, can then be poured from the silo-like receptacle 11, which 1atter','due to the fact that it is intended to contain a liquid such as milk or water, is composed of a relatively thin paper or cardboard stock of suflicient imperviousness to hold either liquid for a reasonable period of time and, of course, the pond-like depression as well as the interior of the silolike receptacle may be waxed, highly calendered or coated with a waterproof or water-impervious material like wax or a silicone. It is, for example, particularly contemplated that the pond-like depression 13 and the interior surface of the silo-like receptacle 11 will be composed of highly surface-calendered paper stock which is substantially non-absorbent for limited periods.

The drawing particularly shows one suitable arrangement of pond-like depression and silo-like and barn-like receptacles but it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the particulararrangement shown since the various component parts may be otherwise arranged or may represent other types of scenes which are not necessarily related to a farm or a barnyard. For example, the silo-like receptacle 11 and the barn-like receptacle 12 may be closely juxtaposed, rather than being somewhat spaced apart, with the silo-like receptacle 11 disposed substantially abutting one end of the barn-like receptacle so that the silo-like receptacle is visually and in eitect a continuation of the barn-like receptacle since such an arrangement is frequently found on farms. It is further understood that the tray depressions 16 and 18 need only be very shallow or slight but should be of sufficient depth to form a definite location for the receptacles and to avoid their being accidentally or inadvertently displaced laterally by unintentional or adventitious movements of the tray or the user. The provision of these depressions also constitutes definite locations for the receptacles so that they will always be in a known position and can be replaced in the original relationship, and, consequently, it will be appreciated that the pond-like depression and the receptacles, together with the depressions in which they are located, form an integral unit and have a unitary purpose and psychological effect.

In using the tray, it will be understood that the roof 19 or other cover member of the barn-like receptacle 12 is lifted ofl, the dry cereal or other contents of the receptacle 12 are spooned out into the pond-like depression 13, the roof or cover 19 is replaced, the conical cover 17 of the silo-like receptacle 11 is removed and the latter picked up and used to pour milk, for example, on the dry cereal in the pond-like depression 13 and the silolike receptacle 11, which is preferably of cylindrical shape, also serves as a drinking container, and thus it has been found that the childs interest is secured without distracting influences and by regular use of the tray soon develops proper eating habits.

The foregoing is intended primarily as illustrative or exemplary and, therefore, it is to be understood that various modifications thereof may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which is rather that defined by the appended claims. It is also to be understood that suitable utensils are provided with the tray which simulate farm implements as far as possible, so that a pusher is employed which may be likened in shape to a hoe and a spoon-shaped article is .provided and, if preferred, a fork-like article constructed similarly to a hay fork or itchfork. It is understood that these utensils may be provided with the tray and its receptacles but do not per se constitute a part of the invention or a limitation thereon and therefore have not been illustrated. It will also be understood that the silo-like receptacle may be positioned at the right of the barn-like receptacle for a right-handed child, the arrangement shown in the drawing being primarily for a left-handed child although it is, of course, not limited to use by a lefthanded child. Under some conditions, such as where a child is very active, it may be desirable to secure the barn-like receptacle in position by a suitable adhesive but this not usually necessary and is preferably omitted.

I claim:

1. A toy comprising a tray having a surface provided with a plurality of spaced depressions therein, one such depression being relatively deep and large and pond-like and other depressions being relatively shallow, the shallow depressions being adapted to receive food receptacles and the deep depression being adapted to receive portions of food from such food receptacles, the shallow depressions being only sufficient in depth to retain food-receptacles therein against unintentional lateral movement, the said tray having a marginal downturned portion to form a depending flange the lower edge of which constitutes a support for the tray, the vertical height of such flange being approximately equal to the vertical depth of the pondshaped depression and a food receptacle disposed in and removable from each shallow depression, each such food receptacle having a building-like body member and a removable roof-like member.

2. toy simulating a farm scene comprising a thin disposable stamped-out, paper-like tray member having a down-turned supporting marginal flange, said tray member havinga pond-like relatively deep ellipsoidal depression with a substantially Water-impervious surface and a cylindrical and a rectangular shallow depression spaced from said pond-like ellipsoidal depression, a cylindrical silo-like receptacle for a liquid disposed in the cylindrical depression, a removable sonically-shaped cover therefor and a rectangular barn-like food receptacle disposed in the rectangular depression and having a roof-like removable cover, said receptacles and covers being composed of the same material as the tray member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Thompson Apr. 20, 1920 138,503 King May 6, 1873 164,964 Brown June 29, 1-875 289,121 Miller Nov. 27, 1883 489,019 Lauderdale Jan. 3,. 1893 564,462 ,Wh'eeler July 21, 1896 722,199 Adams Mar. 10, 1903 1,336,776 Drinkwater Apr. 13, 1920 1,511,265 Chilson Oct. 14, 1924 1,730,403 Boland Oct. 8, 1929 1,848,066 Shepard et al Mar. 1, 1932 1,938,909 Hufi Dec. 12, 1933 1,946,250 Whaley Feb. 6, 1934 1,971,612 Kidwell Aug. 28, 1934 2,314,935 Gutterman Mar. 30, 1943 2,352,684 Braddock July 4, 1944 2,530,227 Cheek Nov. 14, 19.50 2,614,407 Mercer Oct. 21, .1952

FOREIGN PATENTS 21,883 Great Britain Oct. 8, 1902 280,300 Great Britian Nov. 17, 1927 375,486 Great Britain June 30, 19.32 

